


Pieces of a Man

by Littlebluejay_hidingpeanuts



Category: Original Work, Romeo And Juliet - Shakespeare, SHAKESPEARE William - Works
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-20
Updated: 2020-01-20
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:21:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22327756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Littlebluejay_hidingpeanuts/pseuds/Littlebluejay_hidingpeanuts
Summary: Essay on the Masculinity in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	Pieces of a Man

_Romeo and Juliet_ by William Shakespeare is a play about the battle between sex and violence, and the love that is infects both. The two households of Montague and Capulet seem to be interchangeable. In the play, there are no strong identifiers distinguishing the two families. How they are used by Shakespeare and other directors dictates what the families represent. This representation hinges almost exclusively on the first scene of the play. What lines are said and by whom determine which family is cowardly and which is violent. This is not to suggest that there is a moral distinction between the families. Violence in this play is not a bad thing. It can be righteous and honorable, but only until the violence goes beyond the love that drives it. The sex can also be source of violence, or a source of strength. Neither family is good or bad. Love, sex, and violence start out embodied in three different characters: Romeo, Mercutio, and Tybalt.

Although, Romeo, Mercutio, Tybalt, and Paris are thought of as complete male personalities, in fact certain aspects of masculinity are separated into and represented by these male characters, making them into pieces of a whole. It is a tentative arrangement. As long as the aspects stay sectioned off with little crossover, the characters are alive and happy. Some regular crossover is normal, but only as long as the aspects stay central in the characters’ personalities. When crossover occurs, the aspects become contaminated as they begin to reside in only one character, and thus the characters begin to die. Romeo is the Petrarchan lover, a very feminized male incapable of any type of action without being led until the stronger characters are dead. Mercutio is the sex of all kinds. He bears a love for Juliet in her capacity as Queen Mab. Juliet has power and her power is really only present at night just like Queen Mab. Queen Mab is midwife to the fairies as described by Mercutio suggesting that Mercutio is himself a fairy. This becomes apparent in his ability to effectively curse both households with the deaths of their heirs. Tybalt is the fighter. The honor of the house of Capulet is the thing Tybalt holds in highest esteem. He fights for the family’s honor with a self-righteous fury. The deaths of Mercutio and Tybalt act as transferences to Romeo to advance his sense of agency. The characters of Paris and Juliet also work within this transference of male power. Paris is the duty-bound suitor. He acts out of an innocent love that coincides with his sense of duty and what is expected of him. As each man dies, Romeo gets something, as if he is absorbing and destroying some quality they possess, and is able to act as a result. Juliet just happens to be manly without anyone having to die. She acts because of her conviction. Over the course of the play, the aspects die off leaving only the womanly male, Romeo, who cannot survive.

The play is a contest to prove oneself to be a man. This challenge is most evident in Act 1 Scene 1. The Capulet men, Samson and Gregory enter the stage, saying that if they “be in choler,” they will draw their swords (1.1.3). In this context, they begin to play on the word “move.” Samson says, “I strike quickly, being moved,” meaning that if he is emotionally moved to feel anger, he will fight (1.1.5). Gregory replies, “To move is to stir, and to be valiant is to stand, there- / fore if thou art moved, thou runn’st away,” using the physical meaning of “move” (1.1.8-9). If a man stands strong and faces his enemies, then he is brave. He is truly a man, but if he moves, that means he is backing away from the fight, and is cowardly. The boys begin playing on the meaning of “the heads of the maids” (1.1.21). To prove his manliness, Samson says, “When I have fought / with the men I will be civil with the maids--I will cut / off their heads” (1.1.18-20). With this violent imagery, Samson does not mean he will kill the women by beheading. He means that he will take their virginity thus proving his sexual prowess. For Samson and Gregory, to be a man is to be unmoving and sexually proficient. A real man can have any woman he likes, and overcome any man who challenges him. He will not be easily swayed by his emotions. One would not find him running around, getting worked up about insults because a real man is superior. A man does not act foolishly in the face of adversity because of the words from one lower in status than him. Instead, a man stands strong and forthright for his family and honor all while chauvinistically enjoying himself with women. Robert Appelbaum agrees that the man “wants to show himself not stirring toward it but already standing there in possession of his masculinity. Valiantly standing, he is confirmed, at last, in his manhood” (252). This is the masculinity that is split between the main characters. Then the Montague men enter the scene.

Once again, the Capulets must prove their masculinity, and so they plan to insult their foes. Samson says, “I will bite my thumb at them, which / is disgrace to them if they bare it” (1.1.37-38). This means that if in the face of this insult, the Montague do not retaliate, they will be seen as the weaker of the two, and thus disgraced. This is what Samson expects, but with all their bravado and aggressive words from before, Samson and Gregory are shown to be the cowardly ones. After Samson bites his thumb, Abraham responds. He demands satisfaction. Instead of standing behind his words, Samson backpedals. He asks Gregory, “Is the law on our side if I say ‘Aye’?” (1.1.41). Gregory says, “No” (1.1.42). Without that protection, Samson becomes uncertain and tries a different tactic of putting Abraham on the defensive by asking, “Do you quarrel, sir?” when it has been decreed by the Prince of Verona that there shall be no fighting. Abraham backs down, but is not beaten. He puts Samson in a tough spot by suggesting that Lord Capulet, Samson’s master, is no better than Montague, Abraham’s master. This forces Samson to save face by saying that Capulet is better than Montague, which he does. This again gives the men a reason to fight.

This scene is very different, yet remarkably the same in Baz Luhrmann’s film version of the play. The biggest differences are that Samson and Gregory are Montague’s men and Abraham is Capulet’s, and that much of the beginning dialogue is gone. These changes are actually very effective. The first difference of switching the men’s masters is understandable. In the text, when Benvolio, Romeo’s cousin, enters, Gregory says, “Here comes one of my master’s kinsmen” (1.1.52). He could be talking about Tybalt who enters a few lines later, but this is doubtful for a play to reference a character’s entrance at the same time as a different character is entering. Luhrmann solves this confusion by just switching who the men’s masters are. This actually makes further sense contextually. The two families are distinctly separated by personality and dress. Abraham’s violent tendencies are connected with Tybalt’s violence rather than with Benvolio’s peacefulness. Instead of having the beginning word play with “move” and “maidenheads,” Luhrmann has the Montagues be very physically sexual. They are bare-chested, listening to raunchy music, and grabbing their crotches. Samson even licks his own nipple to scandalize a group of passing nuns. It gets across the same message in a visual shorthand. The Monatagues try to prove their sexual prowess. The Capulets on the other hand are more associated with violence. This sets up a strong dichotomy for the rest of the play. Every time the houses meet, the clash is explosive as shown by the exploding gas station. The Montagues are the sexual part of a man, that is ultimately proven not to be very strong, even cowardly. Tybalt even calls them cowards and “heartless hinds” (1.1.58-59,65). The Capulets are the violent part of a man. This is no more apparent than in the character of Tybalt, Capulet’s nephew.

Tybalt is a fighter, pure and simple. The first time he comes on stage he draws his sword. He is a warrior who has no place in peaceful society. He says, “What, drawn and talk of peace? I hate the word” (1.1.63). He is always ready for a fight. At the Capulet’s ball in Act 1 Scene 5, Tybalt is smart enough to recognize Romeo only by his voice, and immediately gets violent (1.5.51-56). He calls for his sword and has no problem with killing Romeo right in the middle of the ball (1.5.52,56). For someone who reacts with violence every time he meets someone he does not like, and uses everything at his disposal including words as a weapon, why does he fight? He fights for what every warrior fights for: honor. He believes that Romeo’s purpose for coming to the ball is to make sport of the Capulets. He thinks it is “to fleer and scorn at our solemnity,” and he will fight Romeo “by the stock and honor of my kin” (1.5.54-55). This is why he eventually goes after Romeo in Act 3 Scene 1. He believes that the honor of the Capulet family that Tybalt so dearly loves has been harmed, and demands satisfaction for “ the injuries / that thou [Romeo] hast done me” (3.1.61-62). He is the epitome of Romeo’s “O brawling love, O loving hate” (1.1.169). Tybalt’s violence is born out of honor and love for his family, which includes Juliet. He is the violent part of a man, but also the honorable part. He is the righteous rage of a warrior.

Mercutio is very different from Tybalt, yet he has the same kind of rage. He is proof that the sex part of a man is just as powerful as the violent part. He succeeds in having a masculine sexual prowess unlike Samson and Gregory. He lives by the advice he give to Romeo, “ If love be rough with you, be rough with love. / Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down” (1.4.27-28). He stands where Romeo and the others move. Whereas Tybalt is the fighter, and Romeo is the sweetheart, Mercutio is the wit and lover, in the physical sense of the word. He is not in love with any particular women, but with all women, and possibly men, too. He loves sex and wordplay.

This is obvious in the way he speaks of Queen Mab, perhaps the only particular woman he could love. He calls her “ the fairies’ midwife,” which might suggest that Mercutio is a fairy given how he is able to effectively curse both the Montagues and Capulets upon his death. Queen Mab is the bringer of dreams.

She gallops night by night

Through lovers’ brains, and then they dream of love;

O’er ladies’ lips, who straight on kisses dream,

(1.4.71-72,74)

These are the same kisses that Romeo desires and Juliet is hesitant to give at the ball. The speech is convoluted with contrasts that focus on how small and insignificant Mab is while telling of her great power. “She comes / in shape no bigger than an agate stone / on the forefinger of an alderman” (1.4.55-57). She is also like Juliet. Queen Mab has power over the moon, using “moonshine’s wat’ry beam” as the collars on her “team of little atomi” (1.4.63&58). She is strongest at night. Romeo describes Juliet as “the sun” (2.1.45).

Arise, fair, sun, and kill the envious moon,

Who is already sick and pale with grief

That thou, her maid, art far more fair than she.

(2.1.46-48)

Juliet is more beautiful than the moon, making her like the sun at night. This begs the question: how beautiful is Juliet during the day when the real sun is out? It suggests Juliet is extraordinary only at night, but in the day, she is like the sun, not greater than the sun. Her power like Queen Mab’s is only strong at night. In the day, both are powerless. Queen Mab loses her power because people awaken. Juliet loses her power because she is once again at the mercy of her father’s, Paris’, and the Prince’s bidding. For a time though, she is Queen Mab. As a fairy to his Queen, Mercutio, too, loves Juliet.

Romeo is the unashamed romantic part of a man. He is also the most womanly part. Love is his greatest joy and greatest torment. For him, love is “a madness most discreet, / a choking gall and a preserving sweet” (1.1.186-187). Love is his food and drink. It drives all his actions, especially when it comes to Juliet. Romeo also believes that love is the motive for other men’s actions. When he learns of the fight in the very beginning of the play, he says, “Here’s much to do with hate, but more with love” (1.1.168). Interesting thing is, that for all his naivety, Romeo is right. Tybalt’s love for his family makes him violent. Mercutio’s love of Queen Mab and Romeo make him the sexual, but rage-filled being he is.

Romeo may be a man, but he is really the most feminine of all the characters. In the beginning, we first see him moping over an unrequited love. This makes him seem uxorious, but this is the wrong assumption. It is not just that he obsessively loves his women. Romeo physically cannot act without someone, man or woman, forcing him to do it. He would still be moping if Benvolio did not drag him to the Capulet’s ball with the promise that Romeo will see Rosaline there. Mercutio pushes Romeo to dance. It is his pursuit of Juliet that Romeo gains some kind of agency, but even then it is Juliet that makes the rules in the relationship. Romeo just falls in love. It is Juliet that brings up marriage. He swears his love to Juliet, but she says, “It is too rash, to unadvised, too sudden, / too like the lightning which doth cease to be / ere one can say it lightens” (2.1.160-162). It is Juliet that makes the plans. She says to Romeo, “If that thy bent of love be honorable, / thy purpose marriage, send me word tomorrow” (2.1.185-186). Juliet proposes to Romeo, firmly placing him in the female role. He is vulnerable. The other men act as protectors. Mercutio and Tybalt protect the female aspect of a man in their capacity as the strong, aggressive aspects. Just by being present, and taking action, they keep the “man” whole and stable. Even Romeo notices that his love has made him a woman. He says, “O sweet Juliet, / thy beauty hath made me effeminate,” though I do not believe it is Juliet’s fault (3.1.108-109). He fails to adhere to the statutes of manliness that were set up by Samson and Gregory. He allows himself to be moved both physically and emotionally. He is not stalwart and true, but changeable and easily influenced. Romeo is the feminine side of a man.

Through the course of the play these separate aspects of masculinity get killed off. The first is Mercutio. Mercutio dies because Romeo has crossed over into the sexuality aspect. Romeo has by this time married Juliet, and there is the expectation that the marriage will be consummated. Romeo’s love for Juliet extends to her family which includes Tybalt. So, when Tybalt demands satisfaction for the insult of a Montague appearing at a Capulet ball and wants to duel Romeo, Romeo refuses to fight. Romeo says,

I do protest I never injured thee,

But love thee better than thou canst devise

Till thou shalt know the reason of my love.

And so, good Capulet--which name I tender

As dearly as mine own--be satisfied.

(3.1.63-67)

Mercutio hates this declaration, hates that Romeo’s love has overcome him, calling it a “calm, dishonorable, vile submission!” (3.1.68). Mercutio is moved by this submission, and so fails to continue being a man. He is effected, and fails to stand firm. Mercutio calls out Tybalt and fights him in Romeo’s place. But as was seen in the beginning of the play, sexuality is no match for violence. Mercution is killed under Romeo’s arm by Tybalt’s blade. The fighter is eventually the one to kill Mercutio, but only because Romeo crosses the boundaries.

Tybalt’s death comes in quick succession. Romeo crosses into Mercutio’s domain of masculinity, causing Mercutio’s death. Afterwards, Romeo further takes from Mercutio. He gains Mercutio’s passion and rage. His love and grief for Mercutio grows, leading him to tell Tybalt, “Either thou, or I, or both must go with him” (3.1.124). Tybalt accepts the challenge, and they fight. With Mercutio’s rage to bolster him, and having both aspects of love and sexuality, Romeo wins. Mercutio’s death is dishonorable, so he must be avenged. Romeo crosses into Tybalt’s domain of violence and honor using Tybalt’s own attributes against him, enabling Romeo to destroy the violent aspect. The death of Tybalt is honorable. Even the Prince understands this. He and Lord Montague talk about whether Romeo is guilty and if his crime warrants his death.

 **Prince** Romeo slew him, he slew Mercutio.

Who now the price of his dear blood doth owe?

 **Montague** Not Romeo, Prince. He was Meructio’s friend.

His fault concludes but what the law should end,

The life of Tybalt.

 **Prince** And for that offence

Immediately we do exile him hence.

(3.1.176-181)

Romeo is in an extremely precarious situation. The Prince has chosen not kill Romeo. He agrees that Tybalt’s death was proper revenge for Mercutio’s, so Romeo will only be banished. The precariousness comes from the fact that the two strongest aspects of masculinity are dead. It will become evident that Romeo has absorbed the aspects. This has changed him, and given him certain “abilities,” but it has not made him stronger. The characters were strongest when all the aspects of masculinity were alive and separated into distinctive characters. This is the beginning of the end for Romeo.

Romeo still remains womanly, but shows what he can do after gaining sexuality and violence. It is only after Tybalt’s death that Romeo can consummate his marriage to Juliet. Mercutio’s death leaves Romeo bodily capable of the act while Tybalt’s death leaves Juliet with one less protector for Romeo to worry about. Before this, though, Romeo attempts to kill himself as he mourns both deaths. Friar Laurence calls him on this foolish act:

Hold thy desperate hand.

Art thou a man? Thy form cries out thou art.

Thy tears are womanish, thy wild acts denote.

The unreasonable fury of a beast.

Unseemly woman in a seeming man,

And ill-beseeming beast in seeming both.

(3.3.107-112)

He may be able to consummate his marriage, but nothing has changed in him to make him more of a man. It is not uxoriousness that drives him to suicide. He lacks the strength to stand up for his actions and express his grief. He lacks the will to stand, which Samson and Gregory said defined a man, and instead moves. Romeo thrusts Juliet “to the wall,” but his attempted suicide is evidence of him being moved, effected by his grief over his murders, and thus cowardly. He is still the helpless, female romantic.

Paris is not entirely different from Romeo, except he is more reserved. He is sweet and kind in his dealings with Juliet. He honors her by going to her father for her hand, unlike Romeo. He is a fine man that Juliet’s mother calls “valiant,” “gentleman,” “a fair volume,” and “a precious book of love” (1.3.76,81,87,89). Most of all Paris is dutiful. He acts upon what is expected of him. He is a prosperous bachelor, so he courts the daughter of one of the great families of Verona. Romeo’s love spreads out to most of the other aspects of masculinity, driving their actions. It is the same with Paris. He loves Juliet in an innocent way. He is a good match for her: stable, kind, good-looking, and gentle. It is his duty which sets him apart. Whereas Tybalt acted out of honor, Paris is duty-bound. He is not prone to excess. This is shown perfectly when he attends to Juliet’s tomb in Act 5 Scene 3. He approaches with flowers and sweet water to sprinkle on her tomb. Paris does mourn Juliet in a gentle, quiet way. He says he will mourn her, “with tears distilled by moans. / The obsequies that I for thee will keep / nightly shall be to strew thy grave and weep” (5.3.15-17). The uncharacteristic excessive grief in his words show the intensity of Paris’ emotions.

It is then that Romeo appears like some monster from the dark. With a pickax and crowbar, Romeo plans to break open the “detestable maw” and “womb of death” that is Juliet’s tomb (5.3.45). Paris tries to stop the “unhallowed toil,” and protect the sanctity of the graveyard (5.3.54). They fight. Romeo uses the violence he gained from Tybalt, and beats Paris to death with his pickax and crowbar. This scene is not included in the Baz Luhrmann film version which is a shame because it suggests that Paris is not an important character, and that he has little love for Juliet. Both of which are false. Paris‘ death is equally as important as the others because it is the death of duty. Romeo never cared much for duty. He felt no lasting hesitancy over the fact that Juliet was a Capulet, something that she mused on during the famous balcony scene, nor had any strong feelings about carrying on the Montague name. The death of duty is not pivotal because of how duty affects Romeo, but because it reveals the violence Romeo gained from Tybalt, just as the consummation reveals the sexuality gained from Mercutio. It also prepares the way for Romeo’s suicide.

By the end of the play, Romeo is in tatters. He began as the romantic, which is not the strongest masculine aspect to hinge everything on. He gained the other aspects , but in a faulty way that did not strengthen him. He remains the female man. Now, at his death, he waxes on true to form about how Juliet has kept her beauty even in death. He thinks death has kept her beautiful to keep her “here in dark to be his paramour” (5.3.105). This reiterates how Juliet’s power is only evident in the dark of night. Romeo looks at her, hugs her, and kisses her before drinking a poison. Romeo kills himself by drinking a poison, a decidedly female form of suicide. He has a dagger, pickax, and crowbar, all which would give him a substantially bloody, male death, but Romeo goes out of his way to buy poison. Romeo dies as the feminine male. 

Juliet is the exact opposite. For all that she is “a stranger in the world,” Juliet is surprisingly capable (1.2.8). She holds off Romeo’s amorous advances until she too fails in love. It is Juliet who suggests marriage. Juliet is the one who has to deal with her parents’ disapproval when she refuses to marry Paris. She faces her father’s wrath in defiance. When that does not work to get her what she wants, Juliet goes to Friar Laurence, threatening to kill herself with a knife if he cannot find a solution for her and Romeo’s predicament. It is Juliet that takes the potion to make her seem dead, trusting that Friar Laurence will take care of the arrangements for her funeral and escape with Romeo. Even in her suicide Juliet is strong. She kisses Romeo, takes his dagger, and stabs herself like Romeo should have. Even her lines are aggressive. Unlike Romeo’s, “Thus with a kiss I die,” Juliet says,” O happy dagger, / this is thy sheath! There rust, and let me die” (5.3.120&168-169). This is a sexual image of the phallic blade entering her chest. One could suggest that this represents Juliet’s return to the female role, but this reading negates Juliet’s previous strength. This is instead Juliet’s absorption of masculinity. She is taking the male into herself. Unfortunately, it is only in her death that the transformation is complete. She has agency, and no one had to die for her to get it. She has masculine power where Romeo is weak. She is the male female.

Altogether, Mercutio, Tybalt, Romeo, and Paris make a whole man. They each contribute an aspect of masculinity that is both good and bad. The aspects both harm and comfort. All the men are uxorious to a degree. Mercutio loves Queen Mab, who is represented by Juliet. Tybalt loves his family of which Juliet is a part. Paris loves his fiance. Romeo loves Juliet. This uxoriousness is not a weakness. It is not what makes Romeo feminized. As the characters die off, so too do the aspects, until all that is left is the feminine aspect which cannot survive on its own. The deaths of the two protagonists prove that contrary to popular belief, one cannot live on love alone.

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